Posts Tagged ‘Gang Warfare’

Man the Cannons!

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

Past Prologue
If you’ve been listening to the podcasts, you probably heard about some changes coming down the pipe for Gang Warfare. Well, I’d like to take a second to talk about them here.

Allowing patrollers and ambushers to be in multiple places at once for Gang Warfare had a few unpleasant design effects (along with being a little weird). Among other things, it’s why there couldn’t be a system of “digging in” and fortifying areas.

So, you can no longer be in multiple places at once in Gang Warfare. Some will say it’s a nerf and I don’t disagree, although that’s not the main reason I had to make the change. You’re welcome to yell “NERRRRRRRRRRRRRF!” at your screen if it makes you feel better, though.

“But what about the fortification thing you were talking about?” you may ask if you lived to help me narrate (in which case, thanks). Well, I’m a big believer of delivering nerfs with a heaping side of new content that explains why the nerf had to happen.

Fortification
There is now an unlockable ability to strengthen your patrols and ambushes with various special effects dependent on the area they’re in. That’s the generally sweet part I’ll let you work out yourself.

The part I want to be clearer on is that there are a few new interface bits to interact with to get supplies to the different areas.

  • Leaders and Beancounters can assign profits to different areas in the Gang Stash screen, similar to how smugglers work.
  • There’s a new Gang Missions tab under the quest log. You can toggle whether you’re helping fortify there. You don’t need to have fortification unlocked for yourself to help.

So if there’s supplies en route to the area you’re in and you’ve agreed to help, you get special non-combat encounters setting up the fortifications. You can get these regardless of whether you control the area, but you do have to be active in Gang Warfare.

The fortifications themselves vary from handy to crazy. There might be adjustments for balance later, but I’m feeling pretty good about them now.

How does only being in one place work?
Regarding the earlier topic, if you have a patrol or some ambushes already in place in another area, it will give you a message about not being in two places at once. You can stop your patrols or ambushes at any time from the Gang Warfare screen under your gang.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in New Features

Today’s Updates

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

Whole bunch of updates today. Mostly expanding the Chat interface, but snuck in a few other updates as well.

Chat

  • At the bottom of chat it’ll show who’s viewed that chat recently (last five minutes or so). Good suggestion, the Kitchen Sink.
  • The Gang Warfare messages showing up in chat have been revamped. I think they’re clearer, but the secret is this: the first name listed is your gangmate.
  • The autorefresh should no longer clear out what you’ve been typing. Good catch, Cryptodynamic.
  • Your name will now also show up in bold in the chat as it does in the gang log. Thanks for the suggestion, The Kitchen Sink.
  • When you mouseover a comment in chat, it’ll display the time posted. Remember that is server time, which is set to GMT. Thanks for the suggestion, Cryptodynamic! Always up for a good excuse to use mouseover text.

Other Stuff

  • You can now search in the OmniMall ignoring items in your inventory/equipped by checking the “Listings Only” checkbox right under the search. Thanks for the suggestion, Wyrd!
  • The Gang Log now includes people entering the gang, leaving the gang, promotions, and demotions. These are under a new section called ‘Members.’ It’s pretty cool. Good suggestion, The Kitchen Sink.
  • Shard will now be encounterable after luring a guard away. Thanks for the bug report, Cryptodynamic!
  • The Mall Previews on the front page now have images. It’s kind of shocking how much more interesting that makes them look. Good call, RazielSonOfKain!
  • Third Eye Stashes you collect from now on (using Big M’s Maps) will now show up under your completed quests. Good suggestion, Harrakan.
  • Also corrected a typo from PaidPiedPiperPal.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in New Features, Updates

Putting More “War” in Gang Warfare

Friday, June 12th, 2009

Put in a fairly significant Gang Warfare update today, which I’ll try to explain below. Short version is that defending in Gang Warfare now involves actual fighting and less staring at non-combats.

How It Worked
Once you beat down the previous defenders in an area, you’d gain control through non-combats (which prepare fights for future challengers). Then, after a while, it stops queueing fights and you just get the delicious, delicious benefits.

The Change
Now, when someone is challenging control of your area by defeating your defenders, you need to actually beat them back down instead of just having another non-combat to repair the damage. Assuming you’re successful, you repair the damage just like the old non-combat would.

These new sort of queued fights also can transition over into Control when you take out the old controllers, so you might be able to skip the “gaining control” non-combats entirely.

Why
So defenders in Gang Warfare get to actually fight people rather than hitting a bunch of non-combats. And so that there’s a little more symmetry between attacking and defending. Previously, there was nothing an attacker could do that the defenders couldn’t undo with a non-combat, where now, both sides win or lose in actual PvP.

Other updates for today:

  • There were some SQL connection errors which have apparently been resolved by our hosts, but if you run into any more of those, give me a holler. Thanks to Thrillhouse and JTN2002 for reporting these.
  • Resolved the PHP errors related to last night’s account preferences rollout. Thanks to Borkman, Lord Finisher, and Hastur the Unspeakable for isolating these.
  • Recipes that you cannot complete due to missing components will now have their radio buttons greyed out. Good suggestion, Al and xKiv!
  • And also thanks to Jick and Pyren for taking care of some typos for us.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in Updates

Gang Log Overhaul

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

There’s been a lot of feedback about how the Gang Log could provide better information since it’s inception. I went ahead and implemented a bunch of them today. Thanks to Man Mobile, Jick, The Kitchen Sink, PaidPiedPiperPal, and everyone else for their feedback.

  • The logs are now filterable. This isn’t 100% yet, because posts older than about noon today aren’t categorized (they’ll all appear under Gang Warfare).
  • Donations to the Gang Stash are now visible in the log. This, coincidently, is why the ‘Stash’ isn’t checked by default in the filter, it’ll probably get spammy.
  • The logs are now kept for 72 rather than 24 hours.
  • For now it’ll remember the chosen filter for the length of your session, but it’ll probably store it permanently once I get account options in.
  • Buying hideout upgrades and unlocking hideout upgrades are now both visible in the log.

Some other updates:

  • Hawk will no longer offer to set your dead friends free. He’s not a great guy, but he’s not that mean. Thanks Man Mobile and PaidPiedPiperPal for helping me sort out what was going on here.
  • Similarly, the watch-coveting Third Eye won’t talk about going to guard a dead Dr. Amundsen anymore. Good catch, RazielSonOfKain.
  • The repeated function errors last night are resolved. Thanks thrillhouse!
  • The ‘Rest Here’ link in the Hideout page will now always rest in the Hideout, even if it has to take you out of your current area. It will warn you first and only take you out if needed (Ghost Ship and Below the Charnel House, specifically). Good suggestion, The Kitchen Sink.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in New Features

Gang Warfare Change

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

Edit: This change has been reversed and is under further consideration.

To help split things up a bit (and also because it kind of makes sense), each player can now only defend one area in Gang Warfare. If you try to start defending another area, it’ll give you a friendly message and not cost any Energy unless you got a benefit.

You can stop defending areas in the Gang Warfare screen. It’s right under the option to Leave PvP, if applicable.

If none of that made sense, here’s a rundown of the basic mechanic:
When there’s no one left to oppose you in gang warfare, you start patrolling the area and get special messages that say you’re consolidating control. This is setting up a defense for the area to prevent other people from taking it over and, once you achieve control, gives you a variety of other benefits.

Previously, if you could knock out enough competition, one person could take control of and defend all four Gang Warfare zones. Now each person can only defend one.

Note this doesn’t prevent four people from taking over the zones, each defending one, and moving around to get the benefits from all four. It just requires a bit more ‘Gang’ in the Gang Warfare.

Hopefully, this is a positive change. If not, it’ll be easy enough to roll back. Thanks to llaman for the original suggestion.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in Updates

Post Update Cleanup

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

As you’d imagine, we’ve got a good batch of fixes from the Gang Warfare update. There were actually fewer than I was expecting, which is nice.

Here’s the list:

  • Beancounters should now be labeled consistently across screens rather than being “Stash” in some places and “Beancounters” others. Thanks, Mag, for pointing this one out.
  • Your currently selected Avatar is now displayed first (with explanation). Special order for PaidPiedPiperPal.
  • Old NPC messages (from contacts) are now cleared when you Beta Reset. Thanks for the suggestion, LlamaMan.
  • Brutality was still irritatingly common. That should be fixed now. If it went to far in the opposite directly, we’ll tweak more. Thanks to The Kitchen Sink for the note.
  • The smuggling section in the ‘Gang Stash’ tab now displays the amount you have spent on smugglers, regardless of whether you have any profits to give them. Good suggestion, PaidPiedPiperPal.
  • Adding profits to your smuggler doesn’t wait for you to reload the page to correctly display profits. Good catch, The Kitchen Sink.
  • Fixed a bug right at release where installing a smuggler required you have a smuggler. <_< >_> Thanks, PaidPiedPiperPal.
  • Also had a heaping helping of typos reported by Argeth, Man Mobile, PaidPiedPiperPal, and The Kitchen Sink.

Thanks everybody!

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in Bug Fixes

Gang Warfare Revamp

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

The big Gang Warfare revamp went in today. Lots of neat stuff, let’s see what I can remember off the top of my head.

  • There’s a Hideout link in the top pane now, where appropriate. Among other things, several new gang enhancements are manually used from that screen.
  • There are new gang enhancements. Two will pop out right away, with others (five more) unlockable through various means.
  • There are a bunch of new Techniques. Not all of these will stay Gang-only, but there are a whole slew of them, including some popular demand ones and some that think are awesome.
  • Vigilante has grown into what I was originally picturing. There are some more options now that I’m pretty excited about.
  • There are new crafting components for every craft. I didn’t really plan it that way, but there are a lot of crafting components.
  • An entirely new type of consumable has hit the streets, courtesy of the Third Eye. These won’t stay gang-only forever, but I think they’re pretty interesting either way.
  • There’s a bit of a side quest, although the eventual reward isn’t a Skill.
  • There’s also a new Skill, giving a new option to an old side quest, but it’s so hidden it’s almost an Easter Egg.
  • There’s now another market for your old coins, if you’re so inclined.
  • The game now tracks lifetime gang warfare records. They’re displayed in parentheses behind the current number where appropriate. Thanks to Pyren for the suggestion.
  • Medicine Cabinets indicate when they’ve been raided in both the Gang and Hideout screens. Thanks for the suggestion Magnifico.
  • You should receive additional feedback when your Gang Warfare attempts move your gang to Total Control or Iron Grip. Good suggestion, The Kitchen Sink!
  • Thanks to Man Mobile and Justin for reporting issues I caused while getting the code ready for these upgrades.

I’m probably missing stuff, honestly. There’s a whole lot going on. There’s even a new paper mache ‘recipe’ for crying out loud. It’s like a madhouse in there.

With an upgrade like this, especially in the PvP system, I expect for some problems to slip through. So please keep your bug reporting ready to go.

Cheers!
KinakG

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Posted in New Content!

Smoothing Stuff Out

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

Bunch of changes today. The biggest is that the Third Eye during the University quest have have their difficulty turned up a notch. Their XP awards and boss items have also been bumped up, so this should help smooth progression into the Slags quest.

If they’re too difficult now, could be made more difficult, or are just right, feel free to send feedback in. I’ll actually post a thread on the wiki forums also and see how that goes.

Other Changes:

  • The Sabre encounter (rescuing Dr. Amundsen) has been retooled, thanks in part to some suggestions by Argeth. Should be a bit more interesting.
  • There are new options in the Docks and Docks Medicine quests. Thanks to PaidPiedPiperPal for the suggestions.
  • Hideout information will now be displayed in the Main gang tab for members only. This one is also thanks to PaidPiedPiperPal.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in Updates

Gang Message and Fixes

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

First off, a feature addition: gang leaders can now post a gang message (visible from the main gang page) for members only. This will stay up until it’s changed or deleted. Messages can be added from the leadership tab. Thanks to PaidPiedPiperPal for the suggestion.

Other updates:

  • The back room of Little Eddie’s will no longer unlock from the Docks. Special thanks to Dannzy for helping me nail this one down.
  • The vigilante encounter in the Sewers will now give it’s rewards instead of a unsightly error. Thanks to PaidPiedPiperPal for this one.
  • The Third Eye will no longer pay off the wrong people at the Docks, only those who helped them get there. Thanks to Argeth for pointing this one out.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in Updates

Daily Updates

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

Alrighty, we’ve got some cleaning up of stuff that I was letting slide during the PvP rollout.

  • Hel’s conversations both after her rescue and on the sixth floor allow you some more options to maneuver without leaving the conversation.
  • The Quad Riot sidequest can now be completed at the front door of the Happy Hour rather than having to go in and find the bartender there. Thanks to Twitch for this one.
  • There are now links at the bottom of the screen you get talking about not having a gang. These work basically like the one’s on the gang screen, to help people find gangs they’re interested in. Thanks again to Twitch for noticing I missed the obvious here.
  • Andrea on the beach should now give a specific conversation option for Dr. Myers quest rather than having it rolled into the normal help. Thanks, Twitch, for the suggestion.

Also, there’s been a PvP bug fix because people were getting the area control special encounters without controlling the area. If you still see this, please drop me a line.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in Updates

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